Services and information
As Canada’s national cyber security and foreign intelligence agency, CSE has unique technical and operational capabilities.
Because these capabilities can help other federal organizations keep Canadians safe and secure, CSE is authorized to assist:
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
- Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)
- Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)
- Canadian Armed Forces (CAF)
- Department of National Defence (DND)
CSE’s assistance helps these partners carry out their lawful mandates.
How CSE assists federal partners
CSE’s assistance to federal partners includes:
- collecting and processing communications
- providing linguistic support
- designing technical solutions
- conducting operations
We are permitted to assist the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces with cyber operations.
For example, CSE could protect Canadian forces by disrupting an adversary’s ability to communicate.
How assistance is authorized
CSE can only assist a federal partner if that assistance is requested.
When assisting, CSE acts under the legal authority of the requesting agency, such as a court-issued warrant.
Under our assistance mandate, CSE may in fact target a Canadian or an individual in Canada, but we do so under the legal authority of the agency we are assisting. Any restrictions or conditions on that authority also apply to our assistance activities.
Like everything we do, our assistance activities are subject to review by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP).
